Modem aircraft are increasingly complex. The complexities of these aircraft have led to an increasing need for automated fault detection systems. These fault detection systems are designed to monitor the various systems of the aircraft in an effect to detect potential faults. These systems are designed to detect these potential faults such that the potential faults can be addressed before the potential faults lead to serious system failure and possible in-flight shutdowns, take-off aborts, and delays or cancellations.
Engines are, of course, a particularly critical part of the aircraft. As such fault detection for aircraft engines are an important part of an aircrafts fault detection system. One problem with fault detection in turbine engines has been the large amounts of data typically required to fully analyze the performance of the turbine engine. In many cases such large amounts of data are not available from the engine or cannot be reasonably stored and passed to the fault detection system due to limitations in hardware. For example, smaller turbine engines may be limited data sensors and recording ability. This has limited the ability to perform effective fault detection in some applications.
This issue is particularly relevant for fault detection in the fuel system of turbine engines. The proper delivery of fuel is critical to the operation of a turbine engine and as such a failure in the fuel system will commonly lead to failure of the turbine engine. It is thus desirable to closely monitor the operation of the fuel system for fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis. Unfortunately, previous methods of fault detection in fuel systems of turbine engines have been limited in effectiveness.